The maxspeed=*tag is used to define the maximum legal speed limit for general traffic on a particular road, railway or waterway. By default, values will be interpreted as kilometres per hour. If the speed limit should be specified in a different unit the unit can be added to the end of the value, separated by a space (see Examples).

Indicates that there is no fixed maximum numeric speed limit for this section of road (on some German autobahns and a very few other places). Not to be used for situations where there is a limit but it is not known. Where the limit is not known do not include a maxspeed tag.

walk (proposal)

maxspeed=walk

In Austria and Germany the speed limit for living street (German: Wohnstraße bzw. Verkehrsberuhigter Bereich) is defined only as being a walking speed but there is no defined numeric value for this. The maxspeed walk proposal suggests that walk should be used, but it is not commonly used.

implicit

maxspeed=<countrycode>:<zone type>

Only in some places, notably Romania and Russia, it is common to find that maxspeed holds a value of the form '<countrycode>:<zone type>'. It is used in Russia for areas where the speed limit is indicated on the street by use of a symbol or icon rather than a number. The format includes a country code followed by a ':' and a zone identifier (For example 'RO:urban' or 'DE:rural'). This non-numeric notation is used to avoid the correction of an entire country map due legislation changes regarding maximum speed. In all other places it is more common to place the appropriate numeric value in maxspeed and then identify the type of limit in the '<countrycode>:<zone type>' format using either source:maxspeed=* or maxspeed:type=*. For more information on this, and for a table of common values see Speed limits.

Extended tagging

Vehicles

Where different speed limits are posted for different classes of vehicles these should be specified using maxspeed:<vehicle>=*. The possible values for <vehicle> correspond to the values for transport modes of the key access=* (see also Examples).

Note: Where a lower blanket speed limit is applied for certain classes of vehicle across all roads within the jurisdiction then this should not be tagged at the individual road level.

Driving direction

Where different speed limits are specified for each driving direction those can be specified using maxspeed:forward=* resp. maxspeed:backward=*, whereas forward applies to the speed limit for the same direction as the OSM way and backward to the speed limit for the opposite direction.

Lanes

Where different speed limits are specified for each lane of a road those can be specified using maxspeed:lanes=*. Each lane’s maxiumum speed has to be seperated with the “|” character. The first maximum speed is the maximum speed of the leftmost lane (viewed from the direction of the OSM way), the second maximum speed is the speed of the lane right from the leftmost lane and so on until the rightmost lane.
Further if they should be specified for each driving direction separately the key maxspeed:lanes:forward=* resp. maxspeed:lanes:backward=* can be used, whereas lanes:forward applies to the speed limit of the lanes for the same direction as the OSM way and lanes:backward to the speed limit of the lanes of the opposite direction. See therefore also the Examples as well as the article about mapping individual lanes.

See also

Proposed features/Practical maxspeed - proposal to specify what speed can be realistically achieved when speed limits and other information are not sufficient to give a realistic picture. Rejected but in use.